Once upon a time, before your grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather was even thought about, the trees were as alive as you and I are today. Unbeknownst to all of mankind, they could walk, talk, think, move, and do everything that humans can do and more. But, something happened, and a spell was cast on the evergreen trees, so that they were frozen, unable to do more than think and dream. The other trees were forbidden to ever let any creature alive know that they could move. Now, no animal or human truly believes that the trees are alive.
Let us take a peek into the downfall of these great trees, now known as evergreens. They were not always green during the winters. Long ago they turned to magnificent blues and majestic purples. The others trees became so jealous of their regal beauty that they began to plot ways to get the beautiful trees in trouble. They continually laid traps for them, and pressured them into doing things that were not wise.
One of the young evergreens fell into just such a trap. Her name was Evrona, and the elm trees had been maliciously taunting her all day. They told her that they all had human friends who knew that they were alive. They whispered to her that she did not need to obey the great rules of all trees, and that if she was careful she could do whatever she wanted. They said that she was too scared to reveal herself to a human. Evrona tried to ignore them, and put it out of her mind time and time again. However the thought of what the elm trees were saying kept coming back to her. Eventually she decided that she would not be known as a coward and determined to reveal herself to a human.
Evrona picked a place where no one else would be around to see her, and she went to a stream where a few maidens often came to wash their clothes. She waited, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before a beautiful girl came down the path, with her arms full of laundry, and a cheerful tune on her lips. As the young woman knelt down by the stream, Evrona crept closer and closer. She got up the courage and called out. The maiden was so shocked and petrified that she fainted. As she fell into unconsciousness, she slipped below the surface of the river, and was never seen or heard from again.
Evrona ran away, horrified at what had just happened. She darted back into the forest and settled her roots deeply into the ground in a shady spot. She determined never to tell anyone what had happened. Nobody would ever find out, or so she thought.
At the beginning of time the fairies had bestowed upon her people the gift of life and movement. They could see everything that went on, although they did not bother with anything they deemed unimportant. They saw what Evrona had done to the girl, and were enraged at her lack of responsibility. Right away, before their anger had cooled, they rushed to the evergreens for a visit. At first, there was a great celebration for the fairies had not visited those parts of the woods for many decades. After the trees realized that this visit was not a friendly one, they sobered up. The fairies told them that they had been watching them and were not pleased with what they had seen. The evergreens tried to explain the other trees’ jealously, and how surely that was the cause of all the trouble, but to no avail. The fairies’ minds were set.
So the spell was cast, and the evergreens fell into their never-ending freeze. The evergreens remembered when they could also move about as the other trees, who now came and tormented them by parading around in front of them. They called them names and did other unkind things. But the evergreens were at their mercy and were unable to do anything. The evergreens became so jealous that they did not turn their beautiful colors as usual, but stayed green with envy.